Re: [PATCH] fs: only sync() superblocks reachable from the current namespace

[Al Viro <viro@ZenIV.linux.org.uk>]

On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 11:13:51PM +0000, Al Viro wrote:

> Erm...  And just what is protecting the list here?
> 
> >  static void fdatawrite_one_bdev(struct block_device *bdev, void *arg)
> > @@ -107,12 +138,18 @@ static void fdatawait_one_bdev(struct block_device *bdev, void *arg)
> >   */
> >  SYSCALL_DEFINE0(sync)
> >  {
> > -	int nowait = 0, wait = 1;
> > +	struct sb_sync arg = {
> > +		.mnt_ns = current->nsproxy->mnt_ns,
> > +	};
> > +
> > +	if (arg.mnt_ns == init_task.nsproxy->mnt_ns)
> > +		arg.mnt_ns = NULL;
> >  
> >  	wakeup_flusher_threads(WB_REASON_SYNC);
> > -	iterate_supers(sync_inodes_one_sb, NULL);
> > -	iterate_supers(sync_fs_one_sb, &nowait);
> > -	iterate_supers(sync_fs_one_sb, &wait);
> > +	iterate_supers(sync_inodes_one_sb, &arg);
> > +	iterate_supers(sync_fs_one_sb, &arg);
> > +	arg.wait = 1;
> > +	iterate_supers(sync_fs_one_sb, &arg);
> 
> So now sync() includes O(total vfsmounts on the system) walking the lists, no
> matter what *and* in a situation when a lazy-unmounted filesystem is held active
> by an opened file sync(2) won't touch that filesystem.  Unless done in the
> magical namespace init(8) happens to run in.

BTW, if your process happens to have inherited an opened file from parent,
then unshares the namespace and unmounts the filesystem that file came
from, sync(2) won't affect the writes on that descriptor.